Waterways opening for the weekend raise concern for residents

FRENCH SETTLEMENT - Water ways in Ascension, Livingston and St. James will all be open by Thursday at noon.

Blind River is open in St. James Parish. Parish officials in Livingston and Ascension Parishes said all water ways in their area will be deemed safe for recreational use by Thursday at noon.

Some residents along the water say they still have concerns. Logs and branches still litter the waterways and can't always be seen by boaters.

"I see trees, I see refrigerators, I see all type of debris that gets brought from the bank into the river whenever the waters getting high," said Jim Templet, at Templet Marine. "I do see a lot of impact damages after floods, two weekends after a flood there's still things that are floating with the water some seen and some unseen and the damages can be very expensive up to five, six thousand dollars or more in some cases."

Other homeowners said the high water can damage their property if boaters make wakes near their homes.

"As camp owners, the waves and the stuff like that, from all the joy riders, just tears up everybody else's property, you know, when the water's high and knocking boards lose off the warf and stuff like that," said Rhett Cornett Sideline Boat Repair.